Why is food addiction so rarely talked about when it comes to weight loss? There so many of us who suffer with this addiction and have come to believe that it is because we lack "motivation" or have no "will-power". Would you tell someone who is quitting smoking that when they fail they have no "will-power"? Or would you think that they actually have a real addiction to nicotene? What about an alcoholic? Do they lack will-power when they all off the wagon? Or is it more than that?
I'm so tired of heavy people being treated like we are lazy, unmotivated slugs that can't get out of our own ways. I believe very strongly that I got to where I am because I have had an unhealthy relationship with food. I have had an addiction to food. It has brought me more happiness in my life than just about anything else. PERCEIVED happiness, not real happiness. The delight in a great big bowl of pasta is real, the guilt and shame and blame I feel afterwards is also real.
Food addiction needs more research - I have found huge relief in the realization that I have an addiction. I may never ever be able to eat certain trigger foods again. I need serious help to overcome this. I can't do it alone.
While I do think food can be as addictive as many other substances, including cigarettes, I'm not sure "addiction" is a good term to use for food because the treatment options are so different. We can't just stop eating entirely, or remove ourselves to some desert island to avoid food (not that smokers can necessarily do that either but hopefully you can see what I'm saying).
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Keep in mind there are two main types of addiction:
There's physical/chemical addiction, which is the kind you get from cigarettes (nicotine, but other things in cigarettes as well), and some hard drugs, as well as caffeine. When you're experiencing physical addiction, your body physically craves more and reacts badly to not having the substance available. I believe sugar may fall into this category, when it comes to food. Our bodies become reliant on that source of energy and constantly send signals to us that we need more.
Then there's emotional addiction. This is where marijuana falls. Alcohol arguably falls into both categories, but I think it's notable that alcohol addiction usually starts as an emotional addiction, as we think it helps us deal with things emotionally (and socially), and that's why many people consume it. And I think this is also where most food addictions fall. Because the truth is, most food is not physically addictive. Yes, it sends happy signals to our brains, and yes, we decide it comforts us and makes us feel better when we're sad... but we don't experience intense withdrawal symptoms from cutting back on food, for the most part (again, sugar is a notable exception, as well as caffeine).
A lot of people would say marijuana isn't addictive, the same way they may say food addiction isn't real. I think the difference is that the addiction is not physical/chemical in nature. The addictive aspect comes from our emotional responses to the chemical (which in turn creates a chemical signal), not from our bodies directly demanding more. It might seem like a minor distinction but it's a meaningful one, because our emotions are something we can (theoretically) process mentally, and perhaps make changes to.
(Side note: I have no feelings either way about marijuana. I don't smoke it, but it isn't of much concern to me. I'm not trying to make any moral statements about marijuana).
The distinction is relevant to how you treat an addiction, because an emotionally-based addiction has fewer physical side effects which would interfere with treatment.
Now, that's not to say emotionally-based addictions are easy. They're certainly not. But you have more options for treatment than you would with a physically addictive drug. For instance, you can replace foods with slightly different foods, or slightly reduce quantities without your body literally doing harm to you in response. And more importantly, you can work on changing your emotional state and mindset to overcome the addictive properties themselves.
I think the Intuitive Eating crowd has some good insights on this, because they deal with coming to terms with your emotional responses to food, and learning about what your physical symptoms really are and how those connect to your emotions. User Wannabeskinny has had some good comments on other threads about trust in your body, and other IE concepts. I know very little on the subject and I'm using a different method for weight loss, but I think improving your relationship with food is likely a necessary step if you have an addiction to food.
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Personally, I've had good success with changing my perception of certain foods, and in general changing my preferences. This isn't something I think I could have achieved directly. But as an example, I've switched to better quality, more expensive versions of the junkier things I might have eaten in the past. I eat dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, locally baked whole grain cookies, and I collect fine whiskies. It isn't only the expense of these things that keeps me from over-eating (although I have to admit it helps a lot) - it's also how much more satisfying they are. One of those cookies makes me feel WAY more full than an Oreo cookie. And I can sip at a shot of whisky for over an hour instead of dumping some cheap stuff into coke and causing more sugar cravings.
I've also put replacements in for other food items I might grab, because I discovered a lot of my "cravings" had nothing to do with a particular item - I just wanted to be munching (I'm a bored eater, I think). So I keep a tray of pre-chopped veggies (from Costco) in the fridge (I throw out the dip when I get it home, and buy hummus instead), as well as a tray of pre-chopped fruit (also Costco). These are just as convenient as chips, popcorn, or anything else I can think of. So if the veggies are the ONLY easy thing in the house, it's a no-brainer for me. I'd rather be eating veggies than nothing at all (and if that isn't true - if you'd rather be eating nothing - then you aren't hungry and you don't need any food).
Another important thing for me is LETTING MYSELF HAVE THE THINGS I WANT. I have already decided I would rather be fat than live without sushi. But I've also discovered there are ways to have sushi and still lose weight (without sticking to straight sashimi every time). I had to restrict my finances to make myself order smaller portions, but I'm slowly getting used to just having a roll or two at a time, and not ordering a whole tray for myself. It means I can have sushi fairly often, which is decidedly better than having an entire tray of it at once. I mean, regardless of how much sushi I have in front of me, I will feel equally (emotionally) satisfied when I finish it. So it's better to have ordered less, so I don't end up overstuffed.
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I know this is a huge post and I've gotten a bit off track, but in general what I want to say is this:
Yes, I think food addiction is real, and no, I don't think sheer will-power does anything to help us lose weight beyond the first month or so, because all it takes is one tiny slip in will-power to drop the ball entirely.
However, calling food an addiction isn't going to make it any easier to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle, because food can't be treated like any other addiction. We need food to live. We can't quit it cold-turkey. And sure, we can try and stop ourselves from eating certain things, but that list of things can get so long that we have to face the choice every single day, as to whether to have a piece of that cake at the office, or try a cookie someone offers, or have some fries from the appetizer tray, or have a couple chips sitting out at a party.
And the trigger items are so easily replaced with something else. Something your body realizes gives you a similar feeling, so that now you have a new craving to deal with.
Anyway, I hope you find the information you need to overcome your own difficulties with food. We're all working on our own journeys, though... and I think our best resources may be each other at this point.
miamimelting, there is a support thread on food addiction in the Chicks in Control section. I'm a recent convert from believing in food addiction to not believing there is such a thing anymore. Sure, sugar lights up the same part of the brain as cocaine, but so does listening to music, sex, laughter or anything else that feels good.
I know I have a dependency on food, I rush to it whenever I feel emotions I'd rather not deal with. It's not that I don't want to feel my emotions, I just don't know how to process them and I've gotten used to reaching for food. Because it's easy, fast, compliant, and simple. And it tastes good and it's pleasurable. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, only that I was doing it too much which caused a lot of weight gain and it was time for me to grow up and learn other ways of processing my emotions. The compulsion to eat makes physiological changes to your body that I'm learning to change.
Eating is a behavioral process, you can change the foods you eat by abstaining from "trigger foods" but that will never change the behavior process of turning to food at times of stress.
I didn't realize how many emotions I channeled into food until I stopped doing it. And I wasn't able to stop channeling emotions into food until I stopped eating my trigger foods, and that was REALLY hard to do because I felt addicted to them.
Now whether that addiction was a psychological/physical/emotional/habitual/made-up-ual/whatever-ual addition, I don't really care, because the effects were the same -- I basically couldn't stop eating certain foods and eating those foods triggered binging on ALL foods and kept me in a perpetual state of EFFED-UP'ed-ness. I was a hot mess.
Once I stopped eating my trigger foods, I still did have to figure out what to do with all my damn, pesky feelings. Like Wannabeskinny says, that part doesn't magically fix itself.
Happy, sad, stressed, angry, excited, bored, celebratory -- whatever the emotion, I had to figure out how to have it (weather it, enjoy it, get through it, kill it) without burying myself in an avalanche of food.
Frankly, that was the hard part. After getting through the "withdrawal" (for lack of a better term) from my trigger foods, after I finally halted the binges and could begin to see things even a little bit more clearly -- that's when the really hard part started.
And I haven't binged in 424 days, something I'm waaaaaay more proud of than any weight I've lost.
Just agreeing to everything right now. While the treatments can vary from a food "addiction" then from a drug addiction, there are many things in common in the treatment.
To begin, in both cases there usually is an emotional component that started the physical addiction. And if you don't deal with it, you won't be successful in the long term. For me, I needed/still need counseling to learn out to deal with my emotions.
And the first few weeks on not eating junk were in fact physically uncomfortable. It got easier, no question. But it was really hard the first few weeks.
My counselor gave me some advice that in the mental health world they give to people with addictions. It's acronym is HALT.
Don't let yourself get too Hungry.
Don't let yourself get too Angry.
Don't let yourself get too Lonely.
Don't let yourself get too Tired.
And it does make a difference. If you let self get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired you become more vulnerable to food cravings.
Food Addiction - It is real.
